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Is there a data egress waiver in Azure, like there is in AWS?

In short, yes there is a data egress waiver. See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-egress-fee-waiver-for-the-academic-community/

 DO CUSTOMERS NEED TO DO ANYTHING SPECIAL TO USE THE WAIVER? IS IT AUTOMATIC? 

Networking

Is there private network connectivity between the Ithaca campus and Azure?

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